13 Going On 30 (2004)

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REVIEW

The question on everyone’s mind about 13 Going on 30 is whether it measures up to its male counterpart, Big. The answer is “almost.” Jennifer Garner, best known for kicking butt in Alias and Daredevil, proves she has ample comic ability, in case she ever needs to slay the enemy with laughter.

Jenna Rink (at first played by Christa B. Allen) is turning 13 and just wants to be two things popular and 30. For her birthday, her best friend Matty (Jack Salvatore Jr.) gives her “wishing dust,” and poof the next thing she knows, she’s a 30 year old executive editor (now played by Garner) of her favorite women’s magazine, and she has no idea how she got there. She immediately looks up Matty (now played by Mark Ruffalo), dumps her famous hockey player boyfriend (Samuel Ball) and proceeds to right everything she’s done wrong over the previous 17 years. Yes, you’ve seen many of the highlights in the trailer, but unlike so many movies, there are numerous more hilarious scenes in the movie itself.

It wouldn’t be surprising to learn that Jenna had either the world’s longest alcoholic blackout or multiple personality disorder, because apparently, during her “missing time,” Jenna became a royal, backstabbing bee-atch who won’t even make time to speak with her own parents. How the sweet young girl we saw in the opening scenes turned into The Devil Wears Prada is one of the film’s few flaws. We see her insult Matty in an attempt to get into the Six Chick clique, led by Jenna’s nemesis Tom-Tom (Alexandra Kyle), but one mistake doesn’t set us up, as the audience, to believe she became evil incarnate. Tom’s real name is Lucy, and when Jenna wakes up as an adult, Lucy (Judy Greer) is one of the first people she sees, but it takes another half hour before she asks who she is.

Garner is a delight to watch. She does the confused joy and mixed innocence of 13 as well as Jamie Lee Curtis did the sullen older adolescent in Freaky Friday. Her performance is even on a par with Hanks in Big, though the writing and direction of the 1988 film was superior. One area in which Garner surpasses Hanks is the physical awkwardness of adjusting to a new body, riotously captured in her uncomfortable, trying to be adult walk. Ruffalo’s laid back naturalism complements Garner’s giddiness beautifully, Greer does her stock thing well, and Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings) is hilarious as Jenna’s boss, but it’s Garner who really deserves the credit for pulling off this film.

The young cast members, too, deserve kudos, as do the casting directors, who found two girls with eerie physical similarities to their adult counterparts and a boy (who isn’t meant to look like Ruffalo) who embodies the sweet nerds of the 1980s. All three, as well as the kids in the smaller roles, give excellent performances.

Not since The Wedding Singer has a movie so accurately captured the pop-culture feel not to mention lingo and bad hair of the 1980s. The costume design is spot on, and the soundtrack equals or betters that of the Drew Barrymore Adam Sandler hit. Young Matty’s moment with a Casio moog is not only a wonderful ’80s reference, but also a nod to the keyboard dancing sequence in Big.

The nits are mostly too small to pick, aside from those mentioned above and the too pat ending. The story writers, Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith, were behind the Mel Gibson comedy What Women Want, and in a way, this movie has a similar fantasy feel, as though it could be titled What 13 year old Girls Want.

The awkwardness of adolescence is timeless, and regardless of your age, you’ll find something or many things to love in 13 Going on 30.

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